Edit: The project hit its goal of 35k at approximately 6:41 EDT! Congrats, Tae! Is hitting the mark worthy of a new thread, MGoPeeps? Oh, and don't stop pledging just because it's funded. Extra money will, I'm sure, be needed for unanticipated expenses.

Edit #2: The pledges keep coming in, up over 36.5k now! Also, for those of you who may have pledged and haven't really checked out the kickstarter page in detail lately, a few new rewards were added. Laser tag with Tae for the kids (12 and under) for 12 bucks and I don't think "name a plant" for 5 bucks was on there previously either.

Michigan fans, alums, curious observers - TOGETHER WE ARE CLOSING IN ON THE GOAL. As of this morning, we're pretty much at 31k raised for Martavious Odoms' project to create a Community Garden in the economically depressed Florida city of Pahokee. We crossed that 30k threshold and now only have about 4k more to raise in the last 8 days to get to the ultimate goal, but that doesn't mean we should stop there. Lets see if we can raise even more so Tae can do even more great work in his hometown.

In yesterday's update, Tae was kind enough to stop by and had some very nice words for the MGoBlog community and its support of the charity thus far:

Everyday I click on the Kick Starter project i just stare at it because It seems so unreal to me to see people that I barely even know or never even met take so much pride into helping us. I knew that we had support and people that care about what we're trying to do but when I check my emails, Facebook or twitter and We have people really trying to do all they can do to help us reach our goal and giving us advice and offering their hand with whatever they can help with makes me feel good. Words can't explain how that makes me feel but I want to say thanks to you ALL especially MGOBLOG i don't think we could've got as much support as we did if it wasn't from all of you writting and spreading the word and dedicating your time and energy telling the world about hope for pahokee and the community garden project. if I could I would respond and thank you all individually but I don't think it's enough time in a day to do so but I want everyone to know I appreciate all the support.

Go blue!

And also this:

You guys are a playing the biggest part to me by spreading the word and we can't thank you enough,Yes it's our project but it wouldn't be anything without the support you all have been giving.

This is a really rare opportunity we have here. We're not helping a faceless organization who sends out form letter thank yous for our generosity, we're helping a real live person who we've all seen kill it on the football field and who logs onto MGoBlog to thank us. So if you had any reservations, now you don't.

At the start of the project I really thought 35k was going to be too high of a number. I really wished, at that time, he had picked a lower number, like 25k. I'm glad to see I was wrong and it looks like now they will reach their goal. Great support everyone.

I'm glad I "flip-flopped" about these updates. They're really great, especially with Odoms checking in and acknowledging our support for him and the cause. I think its great for players and alumni to know that we root for them both on and off the field and hope they succeed in all they do. Sure, we love football and place probably way too much importance on it but we are also truly interested and concerned for the players themselves.

With my donation I get to name a plot. Pretty sure it will have something to do with Mountain Goats or my kids or both. My family is really excited about watching this project deliver and glad we could be a small part. A great learning experience for my kids!

I wouldn't have known about the project without MGoBlog so thanks to Butterfield who should be proud of his part in the project's success.

As cool as most of those shirts are, I can't see how anybody would pass up the signed thank you note from Tae. In 20 years, the shirt will probably be dust but whenever you take a look at that thank you card (as you clean up your old correspondence, or whatever) you'll instantly remember the good feelings of your involvement in the project and that will be priceless.

As much as I wouldn't mind a signed thank you note from Tae, there are a couple of reasons not to go that route. For one, why not just spend an extra $10 and gift a shirt to a kid or volunteer? If you'll have good feelings by looking at a post card, I'm guessing those feelings would easily double after thinking about providing someone with a shirt to put on their body.

Another reason is that buying an #EATING shirt, or the like, will spark up conversation and get people interested in what the shirt is about. That's when you direct people to the Hope for Pahokee website so that people that didn't have a chance to donate during Kickstarter now have a chance to donate to the project.

The signed postcard is cool and all, and great for people that don't have much money to play with right now, but you aren't looking at the big picture.

I totally agree that the #EATING shirt is the way to go, not only is it hip and trendy, it will surely get questions about what it means. I cannot count the number of times I have put people in tears explaining the brock mealer story because of my 1% shirt. The best way to spread the message is to spread the message. Ill take my #EATING shirt and wear it proudly.

...yeah, that's a valid point about using the shirt as advertisement to spread the word.

Personally, I wasn't going to choose any reward because I wanted all of my donation to go directly to the cause (rather than part of it being used to buy another shirt that I don't really need). It wasn't until I saw the thank you card option that I decided to choose that (even tough I actually donated quite a bit more).

But there's really no point in nitpicking this stuff. Good work all around everybody.

I tried to tweet and blog as soon as I checked kick starter on my phone and saw that we had reached our goal but wasn't paying attention to my battery life and the phone went dead. I really want to thank the Mgoblog community for helping us spread the word and reach our goals. I'm so blessed and honored to be a member of the Michigan family.

It's a great cause and we all can't wait to see the finished product. For me at least, it's just awesome to be able to give a little bit back for all of the incredible times you and your teammates gave us over the years.

You're welcome, Martavious. Consider it a very small return on all the hard work and great contributions you made on the gridiron for a team and school that we all love dearly. From one alumnus to another, I'm proud of you. Michigan is more than a school, its a family and we all stick together. We're always ready to help.

Tae, you were one of my favorite Wolverines to watch on the field and your work off the field is even more impressive. It's awesome to see people give back and I wish you the best of luck with the project.

I really, REALLY hope Hoke continues to keep the pipeline to Pahokee open.

I dropped my first donation with no reward, because i'm a gardener and i simply believe in what Tae is doing deeply enough that i wanted to help. (Not as much as i want to take winter vacation in Pahokee and help with the garden.)

But now i'm going back and chipping in a little more to get an #EATING t-shirt.